Forkbeard Fantasy Archive
Overview
Forkbeard Fantasy was a pioneering multimedia theatre company, established in the early 1970s. The company performed in the UK and Europe for nearly 50 years using entertaining, subversive humour to explore serious personal, social, artistic, scientific and environmental concerns. Simultaneously rooted in and lampooning British culture, their surreal, comic creations delighted and surprised audiences and critics. The archive provides a rich and detailed record of the company’s creative processes and history.
Forkbeard Fantasy’s first performance took place at the Edinburgh Fringe, home city of founding members, brothers Chris Britton and Tim Britton. They relished diverse performance sites and were joined in their early experimental performances by, among others, their brother Simon Britton, Mine Kaylan, Robin Thorburn and Lol Coxhill.
In 1979 Chris and Tim were joined by Penny Saunders, a designer and maker, who went on to create most of Forkbeard's extravagant and extraordinary costumes and props, and in the late 1980s by Ed Jobling who became a core cast member and the company’s technical wizard.
The 1980s saw the creation of the Brittonioni Brothers, purported avant-garde filmmakers, who originally introduced Forkbeard Fantasy’s standalone films. Starting with ‘Ghosts’ in 1985, super 8 and 16mm cine film became more deeply integrated into their shows as characters ‘crossed the celluloid divide’ through the screen onto the stage. Other innovations were a range of puppets and automata which led, increasingly, to exhibitions accompanying shows with installations in foyers and beyond. The longest of these took place from 1999 to 2002 at the V&A’s Theatre Museum, in Covent Garden, attracting over 350,000 visitors and incorporating sound, moving image, animated objects and intelligent lighting.
Meanwhile, an Arts Council award in 1996 had funded a custom-built studio in Devon, which allowed Forkbeard to run residential summer schools and numerous workshops and short courses, sharing their skills and techniques with new artists.
After 50 successful years of live performance and touring shows, films and exhibitions, Forkbeard Fantasy officially closed in 2023, and their archive and a sample of props and installations were transferred to the Theatre Collection. A cataloguing and digitisation project is now underway to preserve and make the archive accessible. Please get in touch for further information or to discuss access to the archive.
What the collection holds
The archive contains material from before Forkbeard was established through to the winding up of the company in the 2020s. Forkbeard kept a well organised series of files for each show, as well as documentation relating to foreign tours, films, grants, exhibitions, residences, workshops (including their summer schools), funding applications, commissions, Arts Council correspondence, governance records, diaries and calendars, photographs and printed marketing material.
The archive also contains an extensive collection of audiovisual items. Both standalone filmmaking and the weaving of film into theatrical performances were integral to Forkbeard’s work from the 1970s, with animation an important element. The archive includes a broad range of these films as well as visual documentation of finished performances, with most productions represented.
In addition, a few iconic, representative and informative objects have been selected from the former Museum of Forkbeard for permanent preservation, alongside the archive material, including Mammon, who appeared in Forkbeard Fantasy’s show ‘Invisible Bonfires’, commissioned by DEFRA to raise public awareness of climate change.
Further information
Forkbeard Fantasy's website
A 3D digital scan of the Forkbeard Fantasy museum on Sketchfab
Forkbeard Fantasy's YouTube Channel
Further reading
